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As the title of this video suggests, this is kind of a review in a sense of Retirement Visas, Bank Accounts, tax liability - all that stuff. I've been getting emails recently especially from people asking me to do videos, to put out some sort of one-size-fits-all analysis regarding possible tax liability associated with maintaining a Bank Account for a Retirement Visa here in Thailand and various circumstances associated therewith. 

I don't mean to sound like a broken record here but look, at the end of the day, it's all going to come down to the specific facts in an individual case including the nationality of the individual. If possibly a double tax agreement may pertain to them or it may even be necessary under their circumstances, the time they spend in Thailand and also it comes down to sort of the nature of what type of money, what type of funds they are bringing into Thailand and what the circumstances are surrounding those funds. Again there are, I know that this is frustrating for retirees, I'm not intending to just only talk in generalities but I have to at the end of the day because it's wrong to get out on the internet and start making bold assertions about how things work with regard to the tax authorities in any jurisdiction and just sort of say "well that's the way it is" - that's not the way it is. The way it is, is based on the interpretation of the law and the application of that law to the given facts of the given case - that's the way it is. Therefore, every case, again not sound like a broken record, is going to have different outcomes, different conclusions based on the underlying facts. 

The other thing I've seen a lot of people have been commenting to me about, they have sending me links of all of these various foreigners talking about Thai tax law, I'll say it again, they are illegal; they are criminal frankly. I put up the documentation regarding the Restricted Occupations. I don't want to dig too deep into this and no I am not particularly looking to go on some kind of crusade against foreigners here in Thailand. But at the end of the day, I think it's really wrong to have somebody who's not from here who is commenting as if they are an expert or an authority and that is specifically cited as a problem, as a reason, as an offense if you will, under the Restricted Occupations Act - 'posing as an expert'. If you're a foreigner doing that, that's a real problem. Now again, I know we live in this new digital world and we are all supposed to sort of be in the ether of the internet and therefore apparently the law no longer applies I guess, I don't know. But at the end of the day look, here's the deal, taxes are what they are. If you want competent, good advice regarding tax, it's going to have to be on a one-to-one basis; it's going to have to be narrowly tailored; it's going to have to be based on the individual's specific set of facts. Anybody that says otherwise or anybody that's out there making bold insertions about how this is all going to work in every single case, all the time, that's somebody you need to be really careful about listening to. Meanwhile the other thing is if you're taking legal or tax compliance advice from someone who's in contravention of explicit Thai Law, is that a good idea either? Probably not. I mean honestly, would you would you take criminal law advice from somebody sitting in jail? 

I mean at the end of the day and I've discussed this before and not to put too fine a point on this, but it's important. People are literally filming themselves breaking the law here in Thailand and everybody is just like "oh you're the bad guy for bringing that up". I'm sorry, I don't mean to get too upset about it but it's kind of upsetting to me because it worries me how many lay people could be put into a detrimental position because they are taking tax advice from the wrong people.